“Gay Love” by K. Smart: Excerpts and Pulled Verses

There is no shortage of information available on the internet regarding what the Bible says about sin and salvation in general, and homosexual acts as sin in particular. I came across an article by Kevin Smart (I think it’s actually by his wife, however!) at Light & Life Communications and thought it was good, so I want to share it. Also, the article contains references to biblical verses regarding homosexuality, so I’ve written them out here for your reference.

For anyone who comes to this article and wants to rave about how I’m picking on a certain sin and somehow that negates the points made–please, don’t be absurd. Sin is sin, no matter WHICH sin it is (if one can in all seriousness claim that the Bible doesn’t condemn homosexual practices, then in all seriousness, it doesn’t condemn anything). The reason why Smart’s article exists, and others like it, is because so many people are trying to make homosexual acts NOT a sin when they clearly are in God’s view. The worldly embrace of homosexuality has entered the church and thus it’s a big issue indeed. Who would accept a church that embraces adultery the same way? That would be funny, wouldn’t it, to see a bunch of leaders in churches who are proud practitioners of adultery? Adulterous acts and homosexual acts are both sexual sin–they are outside of God’s provision of marriage between one man and one woman.

A formerly nonexistent point of view in the Christian community is increasingly becoming a popular opinion: A heterosexual union is the ideal, but a monogamous union of a homosexual couple is acceptable to God.

I have wondered in the past whether or not I had any right to question a homosexual’s lifestyle if that individual maintained a monogamous relationship. God has blessed me with many beautiful friendships in my life. Over the years as the homosexual backgrounds of some friends have been revealed to me, I have become somewhat perplexed about why I, as a heterosexual Christian, would have so many friends and acquaintances who are gay.

. . . . Christians need to be reminded, as I have been, that they are the salt for their homosexual neighbors. They have what it takes — God’s grace — for homosexuals to be freed of their thorns in the flesh, the sins in their lives. We as Christians need to show God’s unconditional love to homosexuals to such an extent that they become more attracted to God in our lives than they are to a member of the same sex. If our neighbor finds in us the love of Jesus Christ, he or she may turn from homosexuality’s embrace. We should not close them out of our lives.

. . . . Many homosexual Christian activists argue that Christians who condemn homosexuality based on biblical grounds are taking the Bible’s references to homosexuality out of context. There has been much written in support of Christians practicing homosexuality, as these writers retranslate and reinterpret Scripture in favor of homosexuality.

Without taking on the task systematically, I would like to simplify the classic argument against homosexual practice, while not intending to oversimplify it. We need only look to Genesis to meditate on the fact that God created man, and then woman, in His image to be united in exclusive intimacy. Genesis unmistakably teaches that God made man and woman to become one flesh. This is the good and perfect will of God, which men and women have since disobeyed and marred in all forms of sin, including homosexuality and transsexuality, which are condemned explicitly elsewhere in Scripture (rather than just implicitly in the Genesis Creation narrative): Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; Deuteronomy 22:5; Deuteronomy 23:17; Judges 19; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:10-11; Romans 1:26-27; Matthew 19:4-5; Mark 10:6-7; and Jude 1:7. [see the verses written out below]

. . . . Condemning homosexual relations, I’m well aware, is not socially or politically popular at present, but as Christians we are called to be not politically correct but biblically correct, to seek God’s righteousness and to be molded into the likeness of Christ. . . . Nevertheless, we can be friends, mentors, prayer partners, accountability peers and witnesses to the gays and lesbians in our lives. Heterosexuals should not think that because we do not have a homosexual past we cannot witness to a homosexual neighbor. In fact, a homosexual who is searching may find the health and restoration he or she needs within the environment surrounding a loving, godly married couple who invites him or her into their lives through friendship and Christian witness. . . .

. . . . Read more at the link provided (article title)!

Verses (from the NIV) for the biblical references given in the article only (excluding Genesis 19 and Judges 19):

Leviticus 18:22: Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

Leviticus 20:13: If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

Deuteronomy 22:5: A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this. [Considering when this was written, surely if someone wore the cloths of the opposite sex it was meant as an act of deception.]

Deuteronomy 23:17: No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. [“There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.” 1 Kings 14:24]

1 Corinthians 6:9-11: Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with mennor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Timothy 1:[8]-11: We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

Romans 1:26-27: Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Matthew 19:4-[6] (and Mark 10:6-7): “Haven’t you read,” he [Jesus] replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Jude 1:7: In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

5 thoughts on ““Gay Love” by K. Smart: Excerpts and Pulled Verses”

Amen to this! Even if we take the Bible out of the equation, laws of nature show us that homosexuality is unnatural and perverse. One can logically deduce the wrongness of the practice of homosexuality. Church bodies that accept this lifestyle as being okay are outrageous to say the least.

Hi Lee, and thanks so much for responding! I felt like I wanted to say what I think, at the moment anyway, about homosexuality and faith for anyone who comes to this article and my site. The church should not be saying homosexual acts are OK now and promoting homosexual leaders. Yes, that’s absurd. But I think there’s a difference to consider when it comes to individuals who are homosexual or who think they have such leanings.

There are various websites that are called, or use the expression, “not born this way.” They are either by former homosexuals whom God changed once they met Him, or groups who believe people aren’t born into homosexuality. The ones that I have seen seem like great sites. There are people who are homosexual that truly believe they were born that way since it seems completely natural for them to have same-sex attraction. I’m not going to argue about whether they ARE born that way or whether they are in actuality deceived into that line of thinking. To that person, I’m not sure it would make a difference. I do think both are possibilities. There are babies born all the time with abnormalities, which I attribute to The Fall (I don’t believe, as some do, that God makes people that way!), and I don’t feel I can rule out this possibility when it comes to abnormal sexual attraction. I believe, also, that people can be deceived into thinking that their thoughts of sinful behavior are simply natural and normal. Whatever the case may be, if a person feels God’s draw and wants to be close to God, it’s spiritually normal to acknowledge God’s will and do whatever steps one can to come closer to God’s will and to God Himself. It’s not spiritually normal to say that God’s view of sin is wrong; one has to deal with this in one’s life and relationship with God.

There are other homosexuals who proudly say that their homosexuality is a choice. The people who I have read that think like this are angry and critical. To me, they seem to be in a very obvious state of rebellion. Their end is their own choice.

When it comes down to it, I think the church is in a bad state. Not Christ’s true church, since He knows who makes up His body, but the church on earth. The church nonbelievers see. Many sins are not acknowledged, and so sinners see the hypocrisy of it all and therefore don’t see the need or reason for change. After reading James, a person might think that the “church” (faith) He belonged to and spoke for was a different one than exists today. Anyway, God bless you, Lee, and any who visit here. To All: seek God, seek to respect and help others, seek to give at least as much as you receive.

But homosexuality IS natural. It exists among animals, in a lot of species, especially, for instance, among bonobos (which have sex instead of fighting), dolphins, cats (my mother witnessed a sexual intercourse between two males), flies, and even a lizard called Cnemidophorus … Have a look on TRUE nature before talking about it.

While this may be true, God calls us to not follow natural animal instincts (including promiscuity) when they conflict with how He calls us to live. A basic doctrine of Christianity (and I assume Judaism) is that man and nature are fallen. We are still called to live as we were made, however–images of God rather than images of nature. Anyone born with a diseases or disability I’m sure would not delight in it, but would rather seek to have it fixed. This is the same regarding homosexuality, which God considerations a perversion. He made man and woman to come together for many reasons (spiritual and symbolic), and even by natural standards, that’s necessary for making more humans. So while sex in nature can be used as an excuse by natural man, it can’t be used as an excuse acceptable regarding the spirit.

Well, being atheist, I don’t see things this way. All I wanted to do was just to point out that people who blame homosexuality by saying it’s unnatural are totally wrong, since it does exist in nature. That’s it. I can’t argue any further, since God and all the stuff have little meaning for me, and won’t make me wish to forbide feelings (that are something you can’t control), especially LOVE (hate can – and has to – be forbidden, since it can hurt, and even kill, unlike love provided it doesn’t involve jealous, cruel or mad people).

There are other articles about Destiny, but they are in regards to it's first year and where applicable, critical of certain aspects of the game and especially of how the second year made the first year's game useless. Those in charge of the game thumbed their noses at first year players (who are a type of investor). To play the game fully the second year, players had to fork out another $60; new players, arriving the second year, got the first year free, basically.

Pure

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